1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to screen magnification software and, more specifically, to a feature to lock a magnified view.
2. Background of the Invention
Screen magnification software generally comprises a software application loaded on a personal computer by optical disc or by download from the Internet. The software runs at a low level, frequently intercepting internal messaging at the operating system level and even to graphic display drivers. Magnification software, to be effective, must be available across the entire operating system and not just be limited to a specific application.
While screen magnification products provide access to the entire desktop area, users only have visual access to a portion of the desktop area at any given time because, for example, with items magnified at 2× magnification the user sees one fourth of the original screen, and at 4× magnification, the user sees one sixteenth of the original screen.
During typical functionality, as the user moves the mouse around the screen, the magnified viewing area tracks the movement of the mouse, allowing the user to have visual access to the desktop area around the mouse location. There are, however, times when it would be advantageous to restrict the movement of the mouse to the current magnified view. One example of this is when the user needs to access two pieces of information that are spread apart, but could fit into the magnified viewing area except that the movement of the mouse continually pushes the information on one side of the desktop off the screen as the user approaches the information on the other side of the desktop. The user may wish to keep the magnified view stationary while moving the mouse to avoid unintended view changes. When using screen magnification with a single monitor, it is important that the mouse is restricted to the magnified area during this view locking mode. Otherwise, the mouse will either move outside the boundaries of the magnified area or will cause the magnification area to pan in the direction of the mouse movement.
When using screen magnification in a multi-monitor setting, the need to be able to lock the current view becomes even more important since the user needs to be able to visually access information in each monitor simultaneously. However, the user also may need to be able to freely move the mouse between the monitors while keeping the viewing area static in each monitor. If the user moves the mouse to the edge of the viewing area on one monitor, in the direction of another monitor, the mouse needs to flow to the other monitor without changing the views in either monitor. However, if the user moves the mouse to the edge of the viewing area on a side that does not have another monitor, the mouse needs to be bound to the viewing area, just as it is in the single monitor scenario.